1. What is "understatement" & "litotic constructions" ?

_ Understatement: A strategy of saying less than meant, one of the favorite rhetorical devices in
English, especially in academic communication. In this case, it is the research article.
 Nói thêm (The research is cross-cultural, which concerned two languages and cultural
contexts: Polish and American, and cross-disciplinary in two disciplines: linguistics and
biology. However, since our foreign language is English, we will focus mainly on the
American perspective, and if there is a particular difference between Polish and American
understatement, we will mention it)
_ Litotic constructions: the structure which deny the semantic opposite of what is meant
 Understatement:
 sometimes identified with litotes
 a violation of maxims of quality and quantity: make harmful, disagreeable,
aggressive content more tolerable to interlocutors
 connect with ironic effect: 2 types
a. understatement proper (ironic understatement)
b. understatement in form: not ironical and frequently become
conventionalized (e.g: I'm not feeling the best)
 From the view of maxim: we manipulate the content to reduce the hearer-related
acceptability conditions => the mechanism of understatement
=> Understatement: stylistic device, stabilised phraseological units, a form of verbal aggression, or a
face-saving strategy
2. What factors does understatement rely on?
_ On the type of interaction:
 The mode
 The immediate goals
 The identity and social roles of the participants
 The subject matter
 The degree of sensitivity
 The setting and conventions
 The expectations participants have of this discourse type
3. What are some types of litote?
 double negations
E.g: ... he was certainly not indifferent to what his fellow students might think of him (of somebody
who is obviously extremely sensitive to others’ opinions)
 the meiosis-like structure depending on negation of maximum value
E.g: ... I'm not feeling the best.
 implicit negation depending on negative adverbs
E.g: ... The rate of response to the questionnaire was hardly satisfactory. (= it was unsatisfactory =
not satisfactory)
 negation of a lexical item interpreted as a negation of other
E.g: We do not deny that this approach involves ....
4. What are the litotic constructions in English linguistics and biological research article?
 In English Linguistic Research Articles (illustrated in table below)
 not NEG-ADJ
 not without N
 not NEG-V
  not NEG-ADV

 ELRA: the most common type “not NEG-ADJ” in English the 3rd in
Polish, second negation is adjectives, then noun
 PLRA: the most common type “not without N”  the 2nd far-behind type in
English, second negation is noun, then verbs and adverbs
 In English Biological Research Article